My PC is starting to have trouble, well, starting

Strelok16

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So I go to turn on my computer the other day. I press the power button, and I hear the fans spin up as normal... but that's as far as it got. No starting beep, no lights came on in the front of the tower, the computer just sat there with the fans running and no other activity. From the noise level, it didn't sound like all the fans were on either, or maybe they weren't running at full speed, it's hard to tell. I didn't need to get on the computer really badly at the moment so I just turned it back off and decided to try and see what might be the problem later. When I tried starting it a few hours later, it started up just fine, and everything seemed perfectly normal after that.

I didn't think much of it then, I was thinking it might have just been a random hiccup, but then it did it again today. I did get it started up again (I'm typing this on it now) but I'm not liking this. Could this be the death knell of my motherboard? I've had it for a looooooong time, at least seven years, and its definitely the oldest component in my PC. That's what I'm starting to think now.

So could it be something else? Or should I start shopping for new computer parts?
 
It could also be the power supply which fan still speeds up, but which does not provide all the voltages at all startups.
 
Mobo or PSU

I had a friend who experienced similar things, sometimes certain components didn't get enough juice to start up ( hard disks) and you were left hanging.

Not long after that things went tits up. The el cheapo 400w PSU he bought expired in a White flash and a puff of smoke and that took out the motherboard with it.
 
Don't forget the graphics card and it's associated power leads, if it's not quite seated properly or it's not getting enough power then nothing's doing. Also we've had one instance here where a machine simply would not POST with a long VGA lead connected; take the cable out and it's fine.

Hoping for your wallet's sake that it's a loose connection or dead PSU at the most
 
On a similarly strange note, I've found that certain USB devices will prevent a PC from booting, for example, my cell phone....
 
Well I haven't plugged in any new USB devices lately, and I haven't moved my PC lately so I don't think it's a wire or card being shaken loose either, but I guess it couldn't hurt to check that to just make sure the next time the computer is off. I wasn't thinking about the PSU, because the last one I had fizzled out and I learned my lesson and replaced that with a much better one, I forgot the brand but I know it's not some no-namer el cheapo PSU. You can always get lemons though I guess.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I guess I'll just back my stuff up, check all my connections and hope for the best for now.
 
I had a similar experience once and it turned out to be my power supply (Enermax 420W and it was only like 2 weeks old!). Just be aware that stuff like this can happen to even brand name power supplies. I eventually got it replaced and it has been running fine for the last 4-5 years.
 
Reseat your processor, meaning take the heatsink/fan off, pull the processor out and put it back in. Might want to clean it up and add some new thermal paste while you're at it. Blow out the heatsink/fan with compressed air while it's off too.

Reseat your RAM, and your add on cards too.

It's probably the motherboard itself though. Look at the capacitors near the processor socket, they should all be very flat tops... no bulging or leaking. I've had to replace capacitors in a motherboard before when it did this same thing. Bad caps from China, made with a stolen formula, plagued many motherboards around the time you say your mobo is from.

-Robert
 
Looks like it was the PSU. I suffered a brain fart last night and shut it down (yes you can laugh at me now Vette) and this morning it wouldn't start at all, no fans or anything else. So I went out and got a Corsair 600W, (same wattage as the old one) I just finished installing that, and everything started up just fine and so far seems good to go. The new one is loads quieter than the old one too. :)


Hopefully my motherboard and the rest of my PC will keep on trucking for a while longer now. Thanks again for all the replies :)
 
I had a similar problem a couple of times with my main PC (Core2Quad 6600, Enermax PSU, now 6 years old), It started doing BSoDs on startup, then it just wouldn?t start up at all.

I thought I?d try a stupid solution I saw on the internet, that of blowing all the dust out of my case and PSU with compressed air. Seems like it wasn?t that stupid, cause it worked perfectly for 3 years more.

Last September it started playing silly buggers again, so I brought it back to work, repeated the process and it?s OK again.

A freind?s PC started having the same issues about 2 months after mine, he did the same and his is fine too.

Maybe this will solve your PC issues, if it does, it?s a cheap fix, if not, at least the inside of your case is clean for the new MB :).

EDIT... Ooops, didn?t see the last post there, glad you got it sorted.
 
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You aren't supposed to wait till you have problems to dust out your case! You're supposed to do that regularly :p I try to dust mine out once a month, some people might even tell you that's not often enough. You don't need an air compressor either, any electronics store should have compressed air cans, they look like WD-40 cans, except they only blow air. They're perfect for getting the dust out of your PC, as well as other electronics, and any other nooks and crannies that are hard to get dust out of otherwise.
 
You aren't supposed to wait till you have problems to dust out your case! You're supposed to do that regularly :p I try to dust mine out once a month, some people might even tell you that's not often enough. You don't need an air compressor either, any electronics store should have compressed air cans, they look like WD-40 cans, except they only blow air. They're perfect for getting the dust out of your PC, as well as other electronics, and any other nooks and crannies that are hard to get dust out of otherwise.

I've never dusted mine out :dunno:

No rise in temperatures after 2 years. Dust doesn't do any harm unless it's actually restricting airflow.
 
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